The Warp and Weft of History, on Display

Published: September 28, 1989

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 27—
A story has it that when Franco Scalamandre - a man who knew more than most about the place of fabrics in history - heard after World War II that atomic power was being considered for peaceful uses, he cried out: ''Hurry up! Make a split-atom textile!''

In the 60 years since it was founded, the house of Scalamandre has always looked upon textiles as archeological artifacts and itself as the keeper of a historical record. On Tuesday ''Scalamandre: Preserving America's Textile Heritage, 1929-1989,'' an exhibition of some of the company's vast collection of historical textiles, opened at the Paley Design Center of the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science.

Scalamandre has done more than 600 historical textile reproductions in the United States and Europe. The company, in New York City, also produces custom textiles and trimmings for decorators and designers. More than 100 items made by the concern - elaborate tassels and fringe, dimities and damasks - are on display. Frank Koe, the director of the center, worked on the show for two years with Adriana Scalamandre Bitter, the president of the company, and her husband, Edwin Ward Bitter, the chairman. Franco Scalamandre, Mrs. Bitter's father, died last year.

''This is more than just an exhibition of fabrics,'' Ms. Bitter said. ''It is a commentary on the chronological history of America.'' The exhibition's opening gala, headed by the Philadelphia architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, was held on Saturday at the College of Textiles and Science.

''Split Atom,'' a cotton Jacquard with a satin background, was not selected for the show, but the French-inspired blue-red silk the Scalamandres produced for Jacqueline Kennedy when she decorated the Red Room at the White House was. Scalamandre materials have been used in the White House by every president since Hoover. On loan for the exhibit is the chair that George Washington used at his inauguration in 1789, which is covered in a silk damask based on a pattern popular at the time. The Scalamandres reproduced the pattern from a piece of red silk damask that was believed to have been used in a house where Washington stayed.

Also in the show are some strands from the fringe of one of the flags on Abraham Lincoln's balcony box at Ford's Theater in Washington. After John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln, he jumped from the box and his spur caught in a flag - which flag, no one is sure - and broke his leg. The Scalamandres have reproduced the gold silk fringe on display here for Ford's Theater, giving it an authentic left-handed twist.

It is such highly researched detail that Scalamandre is known for. A cotton dimity, or Jacquard stripe, reproduced for Washington's home at Mount Vernon was based on a scrap of material found in a mouse hole in a wall of Washington's bedroom.

Should there be a call for American 40's decor, bolts of ''Split Atom'' are waiting in the Scalamandre warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, along with thousands of other patterns used through American history.

The exhibition runs until Dec. 23. The Paley Design Center is at School House Lane and Henry Avenue in Philadelphia. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. Admission is free.